To understand the will of Jane Curle (Sr.), which is in the name Jane Sweeney, it is necessary to review the marital history of Nicholas Curle and his wife.
Nicholas Curle first married Elizabeth Gutherick in 1700, which marriage is recorded in Elizabeth City records [7]. Elizabeth died, and there were no known children from that marriage.
Nicholas married his second wife, Jane Wilson, daughter of Col. William Wilson, and legatee and executrix of his will. Proof that his wife was the daughter of Col. William Wilson is clearly stated in Nicholas Curle's will:
"…my Sd. son Wilson Curle's Land Given to him by his Grandfather Col. Willm. Wilson".
After Nicholas Curle died in 1714, his widow, Jane, married James Ricketts, who was a Burgess 1720-22 and 1723. Ricketts died in 1724.
Jane married her third husband, Merritt Sweeney, by 1733, when she was named as a legatee by the name "Mrs. Jane Sweeney" in the will of Susanna Alkins [8], with her daughter, Jane Curle (Jr).
The second and third marriages of the widow Jane Curle (Sr.) are confirmed in a court case brought against Jane by descendants of her first husband's brother, Joshua Curle, and descendants of her son, Wilson Curle [9].
Jane's second husband, James Ricketts, squandered the wealth that Jane had inherited from Nicholas. The court found Jane to be financially liable for the irresponsibility of her second husband, because of her "folly in Marrying such a Husband," and further found her third husband, Merritt Sweeney, liable as well, because, said the court, "it is of the unhappy Conditions of Matrimony that the Husband must take his Wife with all her Incumbrances."
This lawsuit was probably the reason that Jane Sweeney, widow of Nicholas Curle, did not mention any of her Curle descendants in her will as indicated in the published summary of the will [10].
In the will of Jane Curle (Sr.), dated July 31, 1757, names "my Son-in-law George Walker whole & Sole executor of this my last will and Testament." This confirms that George Walker was the husband of Jane Curle (Jr.) [11]. George Walker declined to act as executor, possibly fed up with his mother-in-law's Sweeny relations.
Jane Sweeney, wife of Merritt Sweeney, is referred to as "deceased" on May 2, 1758, in the Elizabeth City Order Book 1755-1760 [12].
https://www.mullinsfamilyhistoryproject.com/bio-nicholas-curle
